Ravages Of War No Stranger To Historical City

BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA — On top of wartime shortages of gasoline, clothes, toiletries, soup, biscuits and soaps, there is a new economic assault here-sanctions by Western nations.

This assault is only the latest in a long history of sieges, attacks, conquests, occupations, burnings, bombings, uprisings and liberations of Belgrade by an unholy cast of conquerers: Romans, Huns, Byzantines, Mongolians, Slavs, Franks, Bulgars, Hungarians, Turks, Austrians, Germans.

``This city has been destroyed and rebuilt many times in its history, something like once every 20 to 30 years on average,`` remarked a local journalist. ``I think the 50 years since World War II may be the longest period of peace it`s ever had.``

For 2,000 years, the old heart of this capital city nestled at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers has been torn in two by the competing tugs of Western Europe and the Orthodox East.

The historic fortress of Kalemegdan, its crumbling foundations built by Romans and its battlements rebuilt centuries later by Turks and Austrians, still commands the high ground overlooking the rivers.

Belgrade, the capital of disintegrating Yugoslavia and of the Serbian republic, now faces economic sanctions imposed by Europe and North America. Its nationalistic war against neighboring Croatia has outraged much of the world.

Here, as in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, the resurgence of nationalism has led to a passionate patriotism marked by flagwaving, emotional hatreds, chauvinistic songs and nationalistic icons.

On fashionable Knez Mihailova, Belgrade`s main commercial shopping street, where autumn`s chill has long sent cafe-goers indoors, vendors at card tables still do a brisk business selling Serbian nationalist pendants, symbols and music tapes.

These include Serbia state medallions, passport folders, stickers and flags; three-fingered hood ornaments, representing the manner in which Christian Orthodox believers cross themselves; pendants with eagles and coats- of-arms, reminiscent of the ``Chetnik`` Serb royalists; camouflaged berets, army paraphernalia and nationalist literature.

Popular songs in Belgrade these days range from the famed ``March on Drina,`` a military march in Serb folk style that is a contender for the Serbian national anthem, to ``Tamo Daleko,`` the classic song of Serb fighters driven ``far away`` from home during World War I.

There are obscene anti-Croatian tunes, including one condemning Croatian Stipe Mesic, president of the now-defunct Yugoslav collective presidency, for his appeal for foreign intervention. Its lyrics include unkind remarks about Mesic`s mother.

Croatia has its own nationalist songs as well, some of them quite moving, like ``Our Beautiful Country,`` or another new tune repeating the simple refrain: ``Stop the war, in the name of love . . . God . . . children. Stop the war in Croatia.``

But there also is an American-style rap song popular on Croatian radio, directing blunt and obscene lyrics at Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

So far, Belgrade has been untouched by the violence in its latest war, but air raid sirens wail daily in Croatia`s capital of Zagreb and troops of the Serb-dominated federal army lay siege to cities across Croatia. Thousands of people have died and nearly a half million have been left homeless in four months of fighting.

``I spent World War II in Belgrade and I remember when shells and bombs fell on Slavija Square. I was 7 years old then,`` recalled Dr. Dimitrije Kostic, now 57, a Belgrade dentist who is Serbian.

``The Germans bombed Belgrade in 1941 and the British bombed Belgrade in 1944,`` he added, speaking on a recent rainy gray day as he was donating blankets to the Yugoslav Red Cross to help Serb refugees fleeing battlefields in Croatia.

``I was very disappointed as a man who survived World War II that the British and the French turned their backs on Serbia,`` he said, condemning the economic sanctions directed mainly at Serbia.

Like many Serbs, Kostic touts the Serbian government`s position that Croatia`s drive for independence, which touched off the war in June, heralds the return of a German-supported fascist regime that threatens the Serb minority in Croatia.

The Nazi-installed ``Ustasha`` independent regime in Croatia during the war was responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. Many Serbs who fear persecution in a new independent Croatia have taken up arms to remain part of Yugoslavia.

Croatia claims Serbia and the federal army are trying to create a

``Greater Serbia.``

``The collapse of communism has thrown open a Pandora`s box of ancient ethnic hatreds, resentment and even revenge,`` President Bush said last week. ``Some fear democracy`s new freedoms will be used not to build new trust, but to settle old scores.

``All of Europe has awakened to the dangers of an old enemy-a nationalism animated by hatred and unmoved by nobler ends . . . a sinister sort (of nationalism) that pits nation against nation and citizen against citizen.``